


Tír na nÓg

by HeLovedYou



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Irish Steve Rogers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeLovedYou/pseuds/HeLovedYou
Summary: Tír na nÓg fusion AU.Featuring Steve as the brave hero and Tony as the beautiful princess
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	Tír na nÓg

**Author's Note:**

> Title Translation: Land of Youth  
> Pronunciation: Teer nah No-wg
> 
> Inspired by a prompt on the POTS discord server by @RiaRose and beta'd by  
> [fluffypanda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffypanda)
> 
> This was VERY self indulgent. Also, because this is an Irish mythology fusion, it requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief. If ever you find yourself asking “why would...” “what happened...” just hush. It’s about a magical land where people don’t age and there are gaping plot holes for, uh, ventilation. Or something.  
> Anyway, consider yourself warned.

Steve looks up the point of the sword from where it rests on his throat and into the eyes of the man holding it. Anthony Stark looks back at him, a flirtatious smile playing at his lips as Steve raises a single brow, fighting back his own amusement with a hearty attempt at blasé.

“Well, Stephen – what do you say?”

Steve glances behind him to the Commandos at his back.

It’s certainly not that he doesn’t want to – quite the opposite. This warrior prince from far off lands managed to capture his interest soon after he appeared in the midst of their battle, strong aboard his beautiful white steed and fighting with what seemed like pure golden energy.

Steve can hardly believe this man who seemed god-like had travelled all this way merely because he had heard tales of the Commandos, tales of him. And now he’s offered to take him to visit his home land – a place only rumoured of in the stories his mother used to tell him and which they still tell on quiet nights.

Steve glances behind him to the Commandos at his back. He looks to Peggy, her eyes crinkling with a sad smile. Something seems to pass between them then, like a blessing being exchanged.

Peggy and the others – DumDum, Mortimer, Falsworth – they have been his everything these past few years. Giving him a place to belong, a cause worth fighting for, and, after Bucky’s death, a reason to keep going. He’s given his all to them, but after everything, he thinks maybe it’s time he takes something for himself. Besides, he thinks as he nods back to Peggy and grips Anthony’s hand, he knows they’re in good hands. 

Anthony helps pull him up onto the horse, then tugs on the reins. As the horse gallops away he can hear his friends whoop and cheer after him. He settles the twinge of uncertainty in his gut with the resolution to visit them soon. 

They gallop across lush grassland and raging seas, Steve gripping Anthony’s waist tightly. He feels Anthony’s muscles clench as he laughs and calls out to the stallion to be mindful of their precious cargo. 

Several days pass before they reach Anthony’s homeland, and in that time, Steve has beheaded a giant, saved a princess, and watched flying deer carry young girls wielding golden weapons. Even so, when they arrive, Steve can only stare.

The horse has stopped in a place with vibrant grasses and trees bearing golden fruit and sparkling flowers. Beautiful towers and buildings loom ahead of them in a vast and bright city and Steve looks around him, dazed and disbelieving. 

“Come.” Anthony slides off the horse, offering his hand up to Steve. “I’ll introduce you to my parents.” 

That evening, Anthony, Tony, and his parents host a banquet. They feast and drink and Steve meets a dizzying array of strange and wonderful people who both intrigue and delight him. He listens, enraptured, to their stories of fantastic creatures and watches as they demonstrate their ability to command nature herself. 

In turn, he shares stories of the Commandos. They seem modest, silly even, in comparison, yet people still cheer as he recounts their victories and listen in somber silence to their losses. 

Steve meets Tony’s friends, some of them anyway. In particular, the feisty redhead with the strange name catches Steve’s attention – Romanov or Romanoff or something similar. When Tony finds them together at the end of the night, he laughs at their drunken state - a result of some new drinking game she had introduced him to.

Later, once the festivities have burned down to embers, Tony takes his hand and they stumble off together, giggling like children. Tony leads him to an ornately carved wooden door, which he pushes open and leads Steve through. They stumble through the room, falling into the softest thing Steve’s ever felt. They’re both gasping for breath in the best way when Tony turns to him, an edge of worried seriousness marring the joy on his face.

“So,” he props himself up on an elbow, “What do you think?”

Steve shifts to mirror his position. Carefully, he reaches out and runs his fingers along Tony’s jaw.

”It’s like nothing else,” he murmurs. 

And it isn’t. It’s like nothing else he has ever encountered, it’s bright and new and overwhelming and exciting and awe inspiring. It’s amazing. 

More than that, as he tilts Tony’s head up to catch his lips in a kiss, he knows it is the start of something legendary.

* * *

The years seem to pass both like running water and dripping treacle, but then, Steve supposes, time is a funny thing. 

Steve marries Tony after a year and together they form a group who come to be known as the Avengers. This land, for all its beauty, is not without its problems. Steve has never been one to back down from a fight that needs to be fought and thankfully, neither is Tony. 

The group starts out modest, borne from necessity with Steve, Tony, Natalia, Clint, Thor and Bruce. Over the years, however, it evolves, with more and more people emerging to join them until it grows into something bigger than any of them had imagined. It’s good, though. Steve and Tony spend the next six years fighting and mentoring and enjoying their lives together, both on and off the battlefield. 

Near the end of the seventh year, Steve finds himself thinking of the Commandos, of his first home. He feels guilt nip at him for not having visited in all this time and resolves to visit them as soon as he can. 

When he approaches Tony to ask to borrow his horse, he finds himself looking down into solemn eyes. 

“Steve,” he starts, gripping Steve’s arm firmly, “If you go, you must understand — it’s important you don’t get off the horse.” 

Steve smiles bemusedly down at him. “Tony-“ 

“Promise me, Steve.” Tony tightens his hold on Steve’s arms, eyes gazing up at him imploringly. “Promise you won’t get off the horse. If you do, you won’t be able to return.” 

Steve stares into his husband’s eyes, dark and desperate, and he finds himself nodding. “Of course. I promise.”

Reluctantly, Tony loosens his grip and turns to saddle the horse up. 

“Just,” Tony pauses in his work, “don’t get off the horse.” 

Steve mounts later that morning and leans down to brush his lips against Tony’s.

“Promise,” Tony murmurs, “you’ll come back to me?” 

“Always.” 

* * *

Once again, Steve travels across land and sea until he arrives home. The waters beneath him are quiet this time, and, when he looks down, he can see the life swimming below him. 

When he reaches shore, he looks around him, amazed at how much the land has changed since his has last been – it seems there exist only echoes of the place he knew. He rides around until he comes across a small town, approaching a group of teenagers sitting outside a barn.

“I’m sorry,” he calls, “but do you know where I could find the Commandos?” 

The kids look up at him, brows creased. 

“Mister?” one asks, looking around at his friends as if wondering if he heard right. 

Steve furrows his own brow. Did the Commandos not roam this land any longer? He did remember they had been talking about moving east to help with conflicts that had been arising there. 

“There’s books about ‘em in the library, Mister, is that what you want? They used to battle around here, didn’t they? The town has a memorial thing for them. Are you a historian?” 

Steve looks down at the girl in utter bewilderment. What on earth is she talking about? Library? A historian? They have those where he lives with Tony, but his home had never been quite that organised, or so he’d thought. 

“No,” Steve says slowly, a horrible feeling like he was missing a key piece in the puzzle forming in his gut. “I just- are the Commandos not around here anymore?” 

The children look at each other again.

“Mister, the Commandos haven’t been here for nearly seven hundred years. They haven’t been anywhere in nearly seven hundred years, they’re all dead.” 

Something cold settles over Steve as the missing piece slots into its place. 

How- 

Seven hundred- 

Dead? 

Distantly, he hears himself thank the young ones and, on autopilot, he directs the horse away, wandering aimlessly through the trees that shadow one side of the town. 

Seven hundred years. 

He thinks of Tony’s warning, how worried he had been, and it makes a little more sense. 

He’s not sure how or why, but he’s been gone nearly seven hundred years and, in that time, his first family have died and faded into legend. 

Steve wanders with his newfound realisation. 

He finds people working their land, hunting for food, enjoying nature. When he asks, they all tell him stories of the Commandos, of Peggy, of Bucky, of himself. 

Some of them he remembers. 

Most of them he doesn’t. 

He spends the day like that, hearing tales of things long passed and grappling with the crushing realisation that he no longer has a place in his homeland. 

When the sun starts to set, a weariness sinks into his bones as acceptance crashes over him. He steels himself to return to Tony and leave this life behind for good. He passes through the town that sits in the same place they fought on that fateful day. 

Before he can leave, he hears someone call out to him. “Hey, Mister! Did you find out about the Commandos?” 

Steve looks up to see one of the kids from earlier waving at him. He rides over. “I did, thank you.” 

The girl smiles up at him. “That’s great!” She pauses a moment as she seems to consider him. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve got a cold on you.”

Steve smiles down at her. He had forgotten how perceptive children were. “Long day and a long journey back home.”

She nods and hesitates before asking “Do- would you mind helping us?” She gestures behind her, where a small group of people are gathered around a boulder. “We have to move it to clear out the farm land and none of us can move it, but Mam said you looked really strong.” 

Steve feels his heart melt a little. 

“Of course.” 

He rides over to the boulder, the crowd clearing as he approaches on the horse. He leans to the side, gripping the reins tightly and careful not to lean too far. He manages to grip the boulder, heaving it up. 

What happens next happens like water dripping and treacle pouring. 

He hefts the boulder in one hand, readying himself to throw it across the field. He hears the clinks of metal against metal seconds before he feels his foot slip out of the broken stirrup. The boulder slips out of his grip and falls back to the earth with a dull noise and the horse to bolts from under him. 

Steve hits ground on his side, gasping at the pain that lances through him. 

When he looks up, it’s through watery eyes and to an empty field. 

The horse is long gone. 

He struggles to get an arm beneath himself and when he looks down, he sees clothes that are suddenly too big for his frame and hands that are wrinkled and dotted with liver spots. 

The silence around him cracks into a soft murmur, nobody knowing what to do at the sight before them. 

Tentatively, the girl from earlier approaches him. “Mister? Are- are you okay?” 

Steve looks up at her and it’s ridiculous but he can almost feel the life being sucked out of him, all those stolen centuries returning to the earth beneath him. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I just-“ 

He winces at how frail his voice sounds, a rasping whisper that his failing sense of hearing strains to pick up. 

“I made a promise.”


End file.
